A blog about computer & video game development in the past. A collection of links to articles, videos, interviews, documentaries, post-mortems, memorabilia, and more - all about vintage video games and their developers. For your amusement and/or inspiration. Edited and updated by John David Karlgren.

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Tuesday, March 03, 2015

Jordan Mechner (Karateka, Prince of Persia, The Last Express) was a special guest at the onGameStart conference in Warsaw, Poland, in September 2012. There, he told a fascinating and inspiring story about his life and career, going from programming games in his bedroom, to writing scripts for movies in Hollywood. His most famous work is the Prince of Persia franchise, which began in 1989 with the release of Prince of Persia on the Apple II. Mechner spent three years creating the game almost entirely on his own, drawing inspiration from silent movies, and using a technique called rotoscoping to produce the game's fluid animation, which at the time was unique in video games.

He also talked about how technical limitations can inspire creativity, why being burned out can be a good thing, and how the "dumbest mistakes" sometimes lead to the biggest successes. A truely inspirational talk, and also a must-see for fans of Prince of Persia.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I'm a 32 year young programmer, game designer, electronic musician/producer, and computer enthusiast from Karlskoga, Sweden.

My experience with computers began with the Commodore C64, shortly followed by the Amiga 500. I began experimenting with game programming at a very young age, starting with Commodore BASIC on the C64. I then moved on to AMOS on the Amiga, followed by Pascal for DOS, and finally ended up with C as I became a hardcore Linux geek. I have since then succumbed to the powers of Microsoft and Windows, but never given up classic C programming. It's still my favourite language, and it's what I use to this date when I make games. Fighting the mainstream and keepin' it old school!

If you'd like to check out some of the games I've done, please visit my website, Studio Stök, where you can download them for free.

You're also very welcome to listen to my music on SoundCloud, follow me on Twitter, or subscribe to my channel on YouTube.